After widening its membership base to include Southern Africa surface mining, quarrying and related operations, representative industry association Aspasa, wants to begin collecting statistics relating to health and safety on its member operations’ sites.
While all serious incidents are required to be reported by law, the association wants to glean further information for its own records in order to identify trends and address recurring problems for a safer working environment.
Aspasa director Nico Pienaar says the association will compile a questionnaire relating to notifiable accidents and incidents which will be distributed to all members for completion by its members. The initial form will try as far as possible to glean historical information from operations, where after members will be asked to complete a monthly or annual report for record purposes.
“Aspasa works closely with the Department of Mineral Resources, Chamber of Mines, Mine Health and Safety Council and related bodies on issues relating to health and safety. The more statistical information we have about accidents on site, the more tools we can develop jointly to minimise risks in future.
“As an association, we have long aspired to the principal of ensuring “Zero Harm” on our member sites and in this regard our members already lead the way when it comes to health and safety on our plants. We have come a long way since the early days of the industry, but we believe we still have a long way to improve before we can truly say we have reached our targets.
“Over a decade that I have been at the helm of Aspasa I have seen many positive changes in the industry. This has contributed to making surface mines and quarries far safer places to work for all involved. With the additional information from our members, we believe that we can use the information to make our industry still safer,” says Pienaar.
Aspasa is recognised internationally for its progressive approach to health, safety and environmental issues. Its home-grown health and safety, as well as separate environmental management systems are mandatory for members and are audited on an annual basis. Being closely based on
Its proactive measures have also been recognised by the Global Aggregates Information Network, of which Aspasa is a member, and has been acknowledged as among the best and most progressive in the world. As a result, the collection of further data relating to improving the track record of its members further, can contribute significantly to the association meeting its Zero Harm objective.
In addition, the information gathered from the surface mining industry would be made available freely to statutory and other bodies concerned with health and safety of the broader mining industry.
